Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 27 (ANI): National Conference (JKNC) MLAs staged a protest inside and outside the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, expressing solidarity with Iran over the killing of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

JKNC MLA Tanvir Sadiq said that the party and the J-K government stand in solidarity with Iran over the killing of Ali Khamenei.

He said that no country has the right to attack another and urged India's top leadership to condemn the incident, adding that they are supporting the people of Iran.

Speaking to reporters, Sadiq said, 'We are standing in solidarity with Iran. The entire National Conference and the entire government of J&K are standing with them. Just like CM Omar Abdullah condemned the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in civil society earlier, similarly today we are all standing here.'

He further added, 'We understand that the way Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, the way he was martyred, no country has any right to attack another country. I think the top leadership of this country should condemn this. Today, we are supporting the people of Iran.'

Earlier on March 7, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the ongoing West Asia conflict, asserting that regime change cannot be effected by aerial bombardment and calling the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a 'gross misuse of force and violation' of every single international law.

Speaking to reporters, Abdullah said that only the citizens of a country have the right to choose their respective regimes.

'The only people who get to choose their regime are the people who live in that country... The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is absolutely correct. You can not affect regime change by aerial bombardment,' he said.

Tensions escalated in West Asia, following the killing of 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint military strikes by the US and Israel on Iran on February 28. The strikes also killed several senior leaders of the Islamic Republic.

Afterwards, Iran also launched retaliatory strikes against US bases in Gulf countries and against Israel, which resulted in a global energy crisis after Tehran-imposed blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's crude oil and gas supply, between 20 and 25 million barrels per day, is shipped. (ANI)